"The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." Orwell

"Men are so simple of mind and so dominated by immediate needs that the deceitful man can easily find those ready to be deceived."
Machiavelli

"The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.." H.L. Mencken

Friday, December 31, 2010

A Story For The New Year

Here's a moving story. It's about cancer, death, and marijuana. Sadly, it's also about idiot doctors, the sort that make me embarrassed to share the title.

Over the holiday, my children came home and I showed them “The Cannabis Closet” book, which got here a few days ago. I showed them the excerpt that I had written about their mother’s battle with cancer and her use of marijuana to alleviate the effects of chemo.

Our oldest son, who has his masters in nursing and runs the nursing staff at the local VA hospital, was surprised that I had not included her oncologist’s reaction to her using pot. To tell you the truth, I had forgotten about it. But he thought it was important that I write it out and send it to you. So, here it is. Sorry it's a bit long; I tried to shorten it up.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I think everyone who uses cannabis for medical purposes has a story like this--not necessarily the total-dick-of-a-doc part, but the part where it gets tried out of sheer desperation by someone who has pain/nausea/etc. issues, but low expectations for its efficacy, and finds it surprisingly helpful.

It's the opposite of a placebo effect, where you're expecting something to work, and it therefore does, sorta. Here, you think: "I smoked this crap in college. At parties. Before getting laid, even. For fun! What I have now is not fun. How could it possibly help?"--but then you find it does.

I know a middle-aged gentleman who has been selling pot since his 30s, in a state where he'd never breathe free air again if they caught him. He told me that when he started out, his clients were all recreational. Now, as they age, it's increasingly medicinal--not necessarily for the clients themselves, but bought for the parent with cancer, the cousin awaiting joint replacement, the spouse with MS, etc. And business is good; clients who, a decade ago, would nurse a dime bag of his cheapest for a year now will gladly buy, monthly, a hundred bucks' worth or so of his most potent goods to help loved ones.

Sid, thanks for sharing that wonderful story. The 'doc' was a quack. Schmuck, and also a putz. I would have decked him a lot sooner. I have had similar experiences as well. My wife has CPRS (RSD) very severe and the MJ allowed her to withdraw from years of Norco dependence. My son has cystic fibrosis, and he uses it with a vaporizer (has no smell, and no tar. it basically cooks the weed and you inhale the vapors. First time I have seen him not anxious about his illness....a new kid. Whatever life he has left I want him to enjoy. He and I go to the medical dispensary where he shows me all about the crop...a lot like wine tasting.....I may get back into it...it's been over 35 years since my doobie days.

Definitely worth the time. My significant other is currently being treated for a meningioma. Fortunately medical MJ is both legal here and none of her physicians object to its use. It has lessened her use of opiates for the pain, decreased her treatment-related nausea and improved her appetite.

Surprisingly, it has also significantly improved her ability to concentrate on writing and organizing events for a large special-interest group. A few months ago she was distraught because she thought she'd have to give that up.

Ummm I thought smoking was totally Evil, and Bad, Immoral, and Unhealthy, you know, like Homosexuality. It even says it on the packs of Marlboros I used to smoke, can cause Lung Cancer, Emphysema, and Premature Labor. OH, its TOBACCO thats bad mmkay, Marriage-Juan-a's healthy, Natures own anti-emetic. OK, I've smoked a little Gan-ja, the Chronic, the Pot, back in the day, and I turned out just fine, that extra year of Med School was a blessing, gave me time to clear the THC from my system.

For The Sake of My Sanity

Some will know me from my other blog, "Surgeonsblog." Of late I've given over to frothing at the mouth as the world descends into stupidity, and our politics and our citizens seem, in numbers enough to be meaningful, unable to see it. So for now I'm leaving surgery writing behind, if for no other reason than to defuse and diffuse my unrelenting sense of doom, and with no expectation of making a difference. These are things that, to me, are obvious. Except that, apparently, they aren't.

RWS™

RWS™: For those who drop by here in the middle, and wonder what it means: it's my shorthand for Right Wing Screamers, which includes such a long list it's tiresome to type it. (I distinguish these blowhards from thoughtful conservatives, of whom I sort of take it on faith that there must still be some.) You know who I mean: Palin, Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Breitbart (RIP), Malkin, Savage, Levin, Ingraham, Doocey (more of a drooler than a screamer), Hewitt, Goldberg, Gingrich, Kristol, Scarborough (+/-), Bachmann, Inhofe, Bond, Broun, Boehner, Kelley, Santorum, Cain. To name but a few. Behold them in their unrepentant disregard for reality: the RWS™